LED fog lamp warning

[Chriswhit]

Fitted replacement LED fog lamps the same as some of the guys have recommended on this forum .Thought I'd leave the covers off the inside wheel arch until I'd tested them . I wanted to cable tie the two driver units to the wiring loom to stop them sliding about which could eventually loosen connections , the fog lamps had been on for a couple of minuets and as I touched one of the aluminium driver units I noticed it was extreamly hot and could not properly hold it more than a couple of seconds without it burning me . The other driver was warm which is expected . It was the same problem with the other side.
They did took great but I don't think they should be this hot.
It might be worth checking if any of you guys have fitted these to see how hot the driver units are getting .
I think they could possibly cause the plastic to melt on the lower scuttle tray.
If I've time tomorrow I'll get in touch with the eBay company .

 

[Pauly]

Its not uncommon for those things to get quite hot, a lot of it depends of the quality of the unit
Remember the driver is basically a giant resistor, the amount of electric drawn by the LED is significantly less than the standard filament lamp which would cause the canbus to think the bulb has blown, that units job is to burn of extra power to trick the van into thinking that the original lamp is still in there thus not causing a blown bulb warning, depending on the wattage of the LED you fitted the unit will be burning excess power to up the usage to somewhere around the 55W that the original lamp draws so this is probably 3-5 times the amount of power the LED is actually using

 

[Chriswhit]

@Pauly i used the 40 watt LEDs the same as mark had used on a previous post on front fog LEDs .
Resistors naturally produce heat as you said but I think these could cause the plastic to melt if these are left on for a length of time . The ambient air might cool them as they will be used mostly in winter.

 

[Pauly]

If they are 40W are they actually required ??

 

[mark]

If they are 40W are they actually required ??

No- I never fitted them form the start, the power drain must be close enough to the standard bulbs to not generate an error.

Mines been in for 3 months now and no problems so far. And at least without the resistors its a better setup as theirs no heat generated
at all.

 

[Pauly]

Thanks for the info @mark , cant beat real world experience from an actual user